Obama Impeachment? Oklahoma Senator Says Benghazi Cover-Up A 'Potential Impeachment Issue'

Representatives from both major ideological sides of the American political spectrum breached the topic of possible impeachment of President Barack Obama over the alleged cover-up of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.

Senator Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., told radio host Rusty Humphries that Benghazi was the "greatest cover-up in American history," saying "People may be starting to use the 'I-word' before too long," referring to impeachment. "Of all the great cover-ups in history-the Pentagon papers, Iran-Contra, Watergate...[the alleged Benghazi cover-up] is going to go down as the most egregious cover-up in American history," Inhofe told Humphries.

Allegations arose that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Obama administration covered-up the idea that the Benghazi attack was a terrorist attack, and not a civilian protest of an anti-Muslim video by Nakoula Nakoula, as insinuated by some in the administration. Nakoula, an Egypt-born American also known as Sam Bacile, filmed "The Innocence Of Muslims", which was considered inflammatory by the public.

Officials in contact with those at the consulate the night that U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed testified before Congress this week on their account of the attack.

On Friday, liberal Newsweek columnist Michael Tomasky said that the accusations against Clinton and others in Washington "become a potential impeachment issue" for Barack Obama.

Former presidential candidate and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., said that the Obama administration distributed "deliberate misinformation" on the Benghazi affair, telling Newsmax that the White House should "step forward, tell the truth, lay everything on the table, and not only tell us what did happen, but tell us why they didn't tell us this before." He said the possibility of impeachment charges may grow if the "White House continues to stonewall [the public]", as Huckabee put it.

If the president or any officials will not come to be impeached on the alleged cover-up, Huckabee noted that the revelations by those testifying before Congress, which Stevens deputy at the time, Gregory Hicks, could result in Obama becoming "a completely inept president with no power because once you lose credibility, you lose the power to govern."

It is important to note that in recent presidential impeachment proceedings, it was not the subject of the allegations against the president that led to the Senate proceedings, but instead the act of an actual crime allegedly being committed. In the case of former President William Clinton, it was not his alleged affair with intern Monica Lewinsky that caused him to be impeached. There is no law against impropriety in that way in the United States, though many see cheating as highly unethical. Clinton was instead accused of lying about the affair.

In the case of any alleged role of the White House in any alleged cover-up of the Benghazi attack, a law such as Clinton's charge of lying-under-oath would have to be breached in order for any impeachment measures to have merit.